The primary objective of this project was to analyze drivers’ value of time while traveling on the I-405 highway during 2019. The value of time estimates how much a driver is willing to pay to save time. This analysis can be applied to a wide range of industries, from airlines to public transportation services. Through the duration of this project, data was used containing volume counts, travel times, and toll rates for particular segments of the I-405 highway. The data was analyzed to explore relationships between time of day, speed, volume, and toll rate. The study also calculated the travel time variability. The team hypothesized that the findings would be comparable to existing published studies on this and similar tollways. The results produced a value of travel time in the toll lane of $27.08. This value is lower than the most recent previous study. The discrepancy is likely due to different equations used, a wider range of factors considered based on data that was not available for use in this project. Future research could evaluate data from prior years using a consistent methodology, and then analyze patterns in the results to find possible trends. Demographic data, information on public transit ridership, and usage trends in the prevalence of various technologies, could all be investigated as potentially influencing factors.
Speed averages for each toll rate were calculated from non-holiday weekdays between 3PM and 7PM for northbound lanes, and from 6AM to 10AM for southbound lanes. Data was available for dates from October through December 2019.
This plot shows the toll rate charged at each time of day during March 2019. Weekends and holidays were removed from this data set.
These time savings are calculated by finding the difference between toll lane and general lane travel times. Travel times used were for the full trip length of the tollway, averaged across all non holiday, weekend, or severe weather event dates in 2019.
This plot is for all 2019 data with weekends, holidays, and snowstorm dates included, for both north and southbound travel directions. Travel time saved is calculated as the differece in travel time between the toll and general lanes.
These plots use the Oct-Dec 2019 data, where holidays and weekends have been removed from consideration.